Steve McQueen's legendary 'Bullitt' Mustang to be auctioned

Steve McQueen on the set of “Bullitt,” in which he drove in the chase scene.

Steve McQueen on the set of “Bullitt,” in which he drove in the chase scene.

Photo: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / File Photo

Photo: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / File Photo

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Steve McQueen on the set of “Bullitt,” in which he drove in the chase scene.

Steve McQueen on the set of “Bullitt,” in which he drove in the chase scene.

Photo: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures / File Photo

Steve McQueen's legendary 'Bullitt' Mustang to be auctioned

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The star of the most celebrated car chase in film history — the 1968 "Bullitt" Mustang GT driven helter-skelter by Steve McQueen over the streets of San Francisco — is going on the auction block.

Mecum Auctions announced Wednesday that the iconic car will be offered for sale during the world's largest collector car auction January in Kissimmee, Fla. It's likely to fetch millions.

McQueen's muscle car was long thought to be lost and rusting away in some forgotten junkyard. But in 2017, nearly a half century after it disappeared, it resurfaced.

Actually, it was never lost; it just kept a low profile.

In 1974, a New Jersey insurance executive named Robert Kiernan was shocked to see the car offered in a classified ad in Road & Track magazine, according to Vanity Fair. The 390-horsepower V-8 in Ford's Highland Green paint still had the original movie camera mounts and a hole in the trunk for a smoke machine.

Kiernan paid $6,000 so he could use the souped-up piece of cinematic history as his daily driver.

"It was unbelievable — I mean, we had seen the movie, and then to see the car," Kiernan's wife, Robbie, told CBS News.

McQueen eventually tracked down the car and twice tried to buy it back, but Robert Kiernan wasn't interested.

Vanity Fair's Brett Berk writes that Kiernan drove the Mustang for about six years, adding 30,000 miles to the odometer before the clutch gave out in 1980. He then retired it to a garage on the family's property.

Kiernan, who died in 2014, never drove it again.

But with the film marking its 50th anniversary last year, Kiernan's son, Sean, decided to restore the car.

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There were actually two identical Mustangs in the 1968 film. The Kiernans' was the "hero car," which is shown throughout the film and was driven by McQueen mostly in casual driving scenes.

The other car was the "jump car," or jumper car, used for the dramatic chase scenes. That's the Mustang you see catching air on a steep section of Taylor Street between Vallejo and Filbert streets, and landing violently as it careens downhill.

The jump car was recently found in a scrapyard in Baja California, according to the Los Angeles Times. It has also been restored.

As for the "hero" Mustang, Robert Kiernan's decision to hold on to the car and not sell it to McQueen turned out to be a wise move.

The car reportedly has been valued between $3 million and $5 million.

Editor's Note: This article updates an earlier version that was published on Jan. 24, 2018.